Jammu, Mar 11: Minister for School Education Peerzada Muhammad Sayeed said Friday the government would not allow private schools to profiteer and charge exorbitant fees from students as it (govt) had placed enough provisions under School Education Act-2002 on regulation of private institutions in the State.
 Peerzada said the order No. 11-Edu of 2004 prescribes the mechanism for regulation of the functioning of private education institutions in the State, which inter alia provides for notifying the details of fee structure chargeable; ban on the mid-term revision of fee; issue of proper receipt of uniform, books, notebooks as to be sold to the students through schools; payment of reasonable salary to the teachers and other staff through cheques.
 Peerzada maintained that it  has been categorically laid down in the judgement in T.M.A Pai that the decision on the fee to be charged must necessarily be left to the private educational institutions that do not seek and are not dependent on any funds from the Government.
 “Each institute will be free to have its own fee structure keeping in mind the infrastructure and the facilities available, the investment made, salaries paid to the teachers and staff, future plans for expansion/betterment of the institution etc. However, there can be no profiteering and capitation fee charged from the students,” he added  
 He said that the Department of School Education has framed rules under SRO-123, dated 18th March 2010, where-under section-9 speaks about the leaving and the collection of fee as under; every private school shall, before the commencement of the each academic session, notify, for general information, the details of its fee structure; the admission fee shall be charged once i.e. upon 1st enrolment of the child/student in the school; no money from any source shall be accepted without due acquaintance and without being properly accounted for; there shall be no mid-session revision of the fee; the school shall effect any revision of fee, in consultation with the parents association under and intimation to the concerned Director, School Education.
 Peerzada informed the house that   the J&K School Education Act and the SRO-123 for regulation of J&K School Education Rules-2010 have been duly vetted by the Law Department and are under active consideration of the Government, wherein a provision regarding regulation of fee to be charged from the students by the private schools will be kept in view. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act-2009, which provides for the following penalties, for charging capitation fee a fine upto 10 times the capitations fee charged; for restoring to screening during admission Rs. 25000 for 1st contravention; Rs. 50, 000- for each subsequent contravention.
 He maintained Government is in process of bringing the J&K School Education Act-2002 at par with Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act-2009 by bringing certain amendments in the said Act where-under the private education institutions will be regulated for charging of uniform fee structure for which the preliminary exercise has been initiated on the basis of infrastructure provide by these institutions. The preliminary exercise will be completed soon and the bill in this regard will be presented in the next Assembly session.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 11 Mar 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 11 Mar 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 12 Mar 2011 00:00:00 IST